DOT 3 vs. DOT 5

[Jean]

As you can all see from Kutter's before and after pictures, If you use DOT 5 in a DOT 3-4 system, the whole bike will disolve.

[2valve]

hi ME 109 , thats doesnt look very pretty and it does look very expensive to repair . good talking peice when mates drop around that havnt seen it before .

[kutter]

Top Triple Clamp is from San Jose BMW,
CC Products. (www.sjbmw.com)

[Major Softie]

Is that triple clamp DOT-5 compatible?

[Zombie Master]

Am I wrong or could the mixing of dot 5 and "proper" stuff be catastrofical. Say if there's some leftovers of 5 in the system after a change and you fill up with 4 or 5.1..
Or is it the plain 5.0 that can ruin thiongs and make them swell?

I think Me109 would be the expert on this.

[ME 109]

Am I wrong or could the mixing of dot 5 and "proper" stuff be catastrofical. Say if there's some leftovers of 5 in the system after a change and you fill up with 4 or 5.1..
Or is it the plain 5.0 that can ruin thiongs and make them swell?

I think Me109 would be the expert on this.

Ahem, thank you ZM.

I think the best way to resolve this issue is to look at it mathematically.
If we subtract Dot4 from Dot 5.1 we get 1.1. That's 1 (point)1. Not to be confused with Dot 1.1 because that was superseded by Dot 1.2 in 1922.
So with the resultant 1.1, we add that to Dot 3 because they are compatible, and we end up with Dot 4.1 which we can see is a full Dot below Dot 5.1 which could become very confusing.
So, we round down the Dot 4.1 to Dot 4 and keep an eye (or two) out for leaks.

Problem solved.

Edit, I thought it appropriate to point out that I can't see how thoings can be ruined, and swell at the same time.
Use Dot 4 and things will be swell.

[Major Softie]

Edit, I thought it appropriate to point out that I can't see how things can be ruined, and swell at the same time.
Use Dot 4 and things will be swell.

I thought it was was DOT 5 that would make everything swell.

[ME 109]

Edit, I thought it appropriate to point out that I can't see how things can be ruined, and swell at the same time.
Use Dot 4 and things will be swell.

I thought it was was DOT 5 that would make everything swell.

That was an intentional swelling mistake Major.

[Major Softie]

That's just swell.

[ME 109]

That's just as well.

Please, allow me.